New Specialty Crops Offer Bonus No-Till Income

Whether it’s soybeans, corn, sunflowers or canola, no-tillers can grow solutions to meet market demand for healthy and renewable oils, as well as more efficient ethanol production.

Generating more income on no-till acres is a powerful reason for no-tillers to raise specialty crops currently available.

“We’re all trying to keep profitability in farming,” says Kenton, Ohio, no-tiller Dave Lotz. “Raising specialty crops is one of the easiest and most reliable ways for me to add dollars per acre to my farm. The premium is more of a guarantee than snake-oil products that may or may not get me an extra bushel or two of yield.”

The Market Picture

Specialty crops are those bred or modified to meet a specific marketplace demand. Production of healthy, shelf-stable oils is the main driver in today’s market, with products catering to ethanol production a distant second.

Food companies began migrating away from soybean oil when the Food and Drug Administration mandated the inclusion of trans fats on food labels. Trans fats are created when oils, like soybean oils, are hydrogenated. Instead of hydrogenating soybean oils, the food industry started migrating to oils like canola and sunflower.

In 2011, more than 7 million soybean acres that traditionally would have been processed for food oil were put into biodiesel, which has the lowest-margin use, says Steve Joehl, Vistive Gold project manager for Monsanto Co.

“There are lower margins made by the crusher when soybeans go to biodiesel. That’s been a drag on the commodity price of soybeans,” Joehl says. “Industry sources estimate a $0.50-per-bushel loss in value as soybean oil moves away from the food market. Creating soybeans that produce healthier oils demanded…

Videos

Addressing a gathering of the Dodge County Farmers for Healthy Soil & Healthy Water, Russell Hedrick of Hickory, N.C., shares a presentation on the impacts on water quality that can be realized by utilizing regenerative ag practices, such as growing cover crops, reducing soil disturbance, maintaining soil armor, and integrating livestock.

Finding solutions to the problems farmers face is what inspired Harry and Etta Yetter to open a small machine shop in west central Illinois in the 1930s. Today, four generations later, Yetter continues the tradition of solving agricultural problems to meet the needs of producers all over the world.

Needham Ag understands the role of technology in making better use of limited resources within a specific environment by drawing on a wealth of global experience to overcome the challenges facing today's farmers, manufacturers and dealers.